


I love you, ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?

by Booksoflilac



Category: Riverdale (2017)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Next Door Neighbors, barchie, childhood best friends, mentions / implied smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 02:16:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20958794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Booksoflilac/pseuds/Booksoflilac
Summary: “We’re not just friends and you fucking know it.”





	I love you, ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?

**Author's Note:**

> This was simply based off of a prompt I found on tumblr. I was in a writing mood and we’re always lacking in Barchie fics so here you go! I hope this lives up to your expectations and forgive me if there are any typos or grammatical errors !

Betty hears the sounds of knuckles rapping against her window at a quarter past nine, the sound causing heat to wind around her rib cage, licking against her heart in voracious flames. The heat spreads from her face to her hips and she swallows, carefully making her way towards the bedroom window that displays Archie’s outline, his crimson hair and broad shoulders stark against the darkness of the outside world. She carefully lifts the window sill to let him in, her eyes glinting like those of a cat whose spotted prey, green against earthy hues of brown. As soon as she opens the window, Archie crawls in, surprisingly agile for the muscular physique of his body, dressed in only a pair of flannel pajama pants and a white t-shirt. She’s struck with confusion at the solemness that’s emblazoned into his expression, his Adam’s apple tensing and bobbing against the column of his throat. 

Betty is just as overjoyed by his presence as she was hours earlier whenever Archie had been in her bedroom, wrapped up in her and the rumples sheets of her small bed in her too innocent bedroom, considering the act they had been committing. Archie and Betty had been in an on and off, friends with benefits relationship that had consisted over the past six months, the idea coming to fruition after an emotional night spent at Archie’s house, soaked to the bone from the rain that had poured violently outside. It had become a thing quicker than she had imagined and whoever had stayed over made sure to sneak out the window so that overbearing Alice or one of their friends wouldn’t see them. Now, back in the present, Betty tilts her head to the side at Archie, her hand laying loosely on her cocked out hip.

Archie licks his lips, smooths a hand over his face, the other occupied with running through his hair. A short exhale, words following. “We need to talk,” He informs her quietly. There it is. Betty’s eyebrows snap together and her mouth twitches, eyes on his. “About what? Is everything okay?” She asks and Archie’s shoulders slump, causing him to cast a defeated glance in any direction but hers. The look on his face reminds her of times spent as two eight year old children, only concerned with the fact that they couldn’t do something as minor as win a race against their fifth grade neighbor, Archie’s head in Betty’s lap as she wiped his tears away and soothed his scraped knee by giving it a gentle kiss and promising that she would make sure that her mom got him a Spider-Man bandaid, just like the ones that he had constantly rambled on about. Or such as the time that Betty had broke her wrist by climbing a tree in one of her spastic adventures with Archie and twelve year old Archie used a ladder to climb up to her window sill and let himself in every day so that he could visit her, gifts in hand. 

Oh, what Betty would give to go back to those times. Now, it’s a constant trial of hiding, hands roaming against hips and teeth grazing lips behind closed doors. “Us. I - I don’t know. No, I don’t think everything is okay,” He responds, taking a step forward, hands shaking lightly. Even though she can detect what his body language means easily, trying to understand what he’s trying to express is a much more difficult task that she wished that she acquired now as much as she did three years ago. “Did I do something wrong? If I did, please don’t hesitate to tell me, I - “ Betty rambles and Archie shakes his head, huffing underneath his breath nosily. “No. I don’t think it’s you. It’s mostly me more than anything. It’s this relationship, I feel like...it’s one sided,” He vocalizes and Betty’s lips tug into a frown, her eyes narrowing in confusion. “One sided, what do you mean, Arch?” She interrogated and his forehead crinkles up, the lines appearing out of stress. “I don’t understand. What we have...it’s just supposed to be strictly friends with benefits. And if I’ve done something to hurt you, I want to know. You can tell me anything.”

Archie shakes his head rapidly, as if he’s trying to shake the thoughts out of his head. However, it seems like the struggle to do so is immense. “Were not just friends and you fucking know it,” He snaps and Betty’s eyes glisten, her heart leaping into her throat. “What are you talking about?” She fires back and Archie paces, one hand clasped around the roots of his hair, pulling in his frustration. “Friends don’t do what we do. Friends don’t stay to cuddle after sex or come through the window whenever one of them can’t sleep to get in that person’s bed, friends don’t constantly almost kiss each other,” He explains, his eyes widening as he says each word. He almost seems frantic in his words, his chest rising and falling. “Why are you saying this?” She splutters and Archie pinches at the bridge of his nose, looking pained as he speaks. “Because I love you! I love you, Betty. I’ve loved you all along, I kept fighting it. Every time. I kept telling myself that what I feel for you, is just platonic. That I love you as a friend. Even though I did love Veronica, there was always going to be a part of me that loved you more than her. Please understand that. I didn’t reject you that first time because I wanted to hurt you, I was confused, it was a dumb decision.”

“And ever since we started this, this, thing. My feelings get stronger for you ever day. I keep thinking about telling you ‘I love you’, that you say it back, that we don’t have to give a shit about what other people think and that they’ll just be happy for us, about being able to wake up next to you. This may ruin everything but at the risk of it, I’m telling you. And I don’t want you to feel forced to say it back but I do,” Archie finishes and Betty’s hand comes up to cover her mouth, her eyes glittering with a whirlwind of emotions, warm tears trickling down her cheeks, her lips parted as a ragged sob escaped her. “Arch. You really think I don’t love you? Of course I do. I’ve been wanting this all my life, for you to say that you love me the way I love you. To be able to be with you. I’ve wanted this ever since I was fourteen and pining after you. Whenever this started, I was so happy. Even if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted, it was enough for me,” she whispered and she’s in his arms and suddenly Archie’s kissing her and it feels like all the colors and sounds are fading from existence - his lips soft and tender against hers, a breath of a caress against her lips, electric sparks spiraling down her spine. He pulls back, resting his forehead against hers before kissing the corners of her lips, the middle, and then her cheek, tasting the salt of her tears. 

“Betty,” Archie croaks out, his voice filled with urgency, softened with affection. “Will you be my girlfriend?”

“Yes, of course.” 

**


End file.
